CHINA
Ten dead in mine blast
At least 10 people were killed and six are missing after an accident at a coal mine in Henan Province, state media said yesterday. The accident, a likely coal and gas explosion described as an “outburst,” happened at about 2:55pm on Friday in Pingdingshan, China Central Television said. Search-and-rescue efforts were continuing, it added. Xinhua news agency said that 425 people were working underground when the blast occurred. Those in charge of the mine have been taken into custody by authorities, it said.
AUSTRALIA
Taiwanese wins Hobart
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico yesterday dominated China’s Guo Hanyu (郭涵煜) and Jiang Xinyu (蔣欣玗) in straight sets to win the women’s doubles final at the Hobart International tennis tournament. Second seeds and Olmos beat the Chinese duo 6-3, 6-3, recovering after crashing out of the round of 16 at the Brisbane International earlier this month. Chan and her sister, Latisha Chan (詹詠然), bagged a gold medal for Taiwan in doubles at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in October last year.
NEW ZEALAND
Ardern marries
After almost five years of engagement and a postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, former prime minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday married longtime partner Clarke Gayford in a private ceremony. Details of the event were closely held by the pair, but the ceremony is reported to have been staged at a luxury vineyard in the scenic Hawke’s Bay region, 325km from the capital, Wellington. Earlier, police met with a small group of protesters who had plastered a wall with dozens of anti-vaccination posters outside the venue. One protester was also seen holding a sign that read: “Lest we forget jab mandates,” on the outskirts of the property.
TURKEY
Military strikes hit Iraq
The military yesterday carried out airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq and Syria, the Ministry of National Defense said. The strikes came a day after an attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq killed nine Turkish soldiers. The government often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq that it believes to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a banned separatist group that has waged insurgency since the 1980s. The defense ministry said fighter jets destroyed caves, bunkers, shelters and oil facilities “to eliminate terrorist attacks against our people and security forces ... and to ensure our border security.” The statement added “many” militants were “neutralized” in the strikes.
ECUADOR
Five more inmates escape
At least five inmates on Friday evening escaped from the vast Guayaquil prison complex, with two of them caught shortly afterward during a vast search operation, police sources said. Shortly after their escape, two helicopters, as well as drones, flew over the surroundings of the huge prison, on the northern outskirts of the city. Authorities and the prison administration have not made an official statement so far. Since Sunday last week, the country has been plunged into an unprecedented security crisis sparked by the escape from Guayaquil prison of one of the country’s most powerful narco bosses, Jose Adolfo Macias, known by the alias “Fito.” His escape was followed by prison riots, hostage-taking and attacks on the police.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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